Hello! We’re back again with another live session from friend of the podcast, Helen Arney. Here’s one she wrote for the Bright Club Bristol event “The Nature of Things”.

And here’s another big ol’ plug for the Festival of the Spoken Nerd tour, featuring Helen, which starts tonight at the Concert Hall in Reading.

Click here to choose from iTunes and other podcatchers. Subscription is free – it just means that whenever you open iTunes, it will automatically check for updates and download new podcasts. The online archive is here.

This month, the Geek Pop Sessions presents a re-working of a sci-pop “classic”, if you can call it that.

We’ll leave Simon from the rather wonderful Woe Betides to explain all. Also, check out their debut album ‘Never Sleep‘. We couldn’t help noticing that it features songs called ‘This Head, This Heart’ and ‘Bone on Bone’. Let’s just hope they’re anatomically accurate.

THE SONG: Biology by The Woe Betides

(Ahem, originally by Girls Aloud)

Lyrics:

Why don’t you fool me, feed me say, you need me without wicked games Come on and hold me, hug me, say you love me, and not my dirty brain Why don’t you fool me, feed me, say you need me without wicked games Come on and hold me, love me, say you love me, and not my dirty brain

I got one Alabama return, that’ll take me far away from you

Cause when you take me in your arms I turn to slave but I cant be saved

You fall on your knees and the geek at your feet says your neat, and the beat gets closer

You dive for the thrill at the kill and your heart’s had its fill, But it still creeps closer

You wanted to freeze but your weak in too deep and the beat and the beat gets closer

Closer Closer Closer Closer Closer Closer Closer

We give it up and then they take it away A girl’s got to zip it up, And get her head in the shade

Baby we give it up, It’s just a matter of time Throw all the heavy stuff, Comes back to bite your behind

You can’t mistake my Biology

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, It’s there in our thoughts

The magic number is in front of me

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, So easily caught

You can’t mistake my Biology

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, It’s there in our thoughts

We’re gonna cause a controversy

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, So easily caught

Why don’t you fool me, feed me say, you need me without wicked games Come on and hold me, hug me, say you love me, and not my dirty brain Why don’t you fool me, feed me, say you need me without wicked games Come on and hold me, love me, say you love me, and not my dirty brain

You can’t mistake my Biology

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, It’s there in our thoughts

The magic number is in front of me

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, So easily caught

You can’t mistake my Biology

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, It’s there in our thoughts

We’re gonna cause a controversy

The way that we talk, The way that we walk, So easily caught

Click here to choose from iTunes and other podcatchers. Subscription is free – it just means that whenever you open iTunes, it will automatically check for updates and download new podcasts. The online archive is here.

For several years now, members of the Geek Pop crew have been great admirers of the WeAreAllBadgers.com website. It really is a thing of pure joy and you’ll have to investigate it yourselves to truly appreciate it… but in any case, it’s the inspiration for this month’s Geek Pop Sessions pod. Yes, we’ve hunted down the man responsible for WeAreAllBadgers’ official song, ‘Undergound’, and persuaded him to talk to us. Jimothy Bell has also extracted some spurious facts from the WeAreAllBadgers website and used them to quiz Hayley with. As you will find out, Hayley is not as easily fooled as she looks. (She has, however, just cried with laughter until her stomach hurt whilst taking WeAreAllBadgers’ good or evil test.)

There’s a mystery deep underground, where we keep warm and sleep sound

Come with me, come with me, it’s a kind of heaven and it’s not in the sky

So use your best endeavours, try

Have you seen the setting sun? It’s the best time to play and run

Come with me, come with me, it’s a kind of heaven and it’s not in the sky

So use your best endeavours, try

When I took you across the road, we took care because of what we’ve been told

Didn’t stray from the beaten track and know our way back

Come with me, come with me, it’s a kind of heaven and it’s not in the sky

So use your best endeavours, try… (repeat)

More badger art what we promised we would publish. Thanks Sophie (top), Martin (middle) and Beki (bottom). Do send us other badger art via the comments section – we’re quite enjoying it.

Click here to choose from iTunes and other podcatchers. Subscription is free – it just means that whenever you open iTunes, it will automatically check for updates and download new podcasts. The online archive is here.

This month’s session cast is our first Twitter-sourced song. It features the talents of Ardie Collins, the man behind the Cooper365 project, in which he wrote, recorded and published a song for every day of 2011. Including this geeky New Year song, that’s a new song every day for 366 days! The theme we gave him was “scientific resolutions” – perfect for a New Year podcast. Happy 2012 Geek Poppers!

For more sciencey songs from Ardie, go here. If you have some of your own scientific resolutions, why not post them in the comments or tweet them at us?

THE SONG: My Scientific New Year’s Resolutions – Ardie Collins

Lyrics: Currently being typed up by the lyric fairies…

Click here to choose from iTunes and other podcatchers. Subscription is free – it just means that whenever you open iTunes, it will automatically check for updates and download new podcasts. The online archive is here.

Onwards with our new two-podcasts-a-month mission. And this month we’re bringing you a song specially commissioned by Geek Pop (yes, by us!) for Bright Club Bristol. Hoorah!

We asked Bristol-based musician Lori Campbell to write us something a bit silly for a sciencey sort of show. And well, she’s done us proud.

Thanks to Lori’s friend John Hendicott for putting all the mics in the right places and to Mr Lori for the inspiration.

THE SONG: The First Time – Lori Campbell

I can’t remember the first time I saw your face, but faces change and so have II always knew there was something unique about you and I let my curiosity get the better of meThis is the first time I have loved an intellectual, mathematical, he always corrects my grammaticalsEver so practical, exceptional, electromagnetical man, who says things like:“The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, but that’s not only blue and yellow you see floating highIt’s a phenomenological phenomenon, a trick of the light…The light is first refracted, entering the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop and again refracted as it leaves the dropThe overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, with the most intense light at the angle of 40 to 42 degreesThe angle is independent of the size of the drop but it does depend on the refractive index.”He’s so romantic like thatHe is an intellectual, mathematical, he always corrects my grammaticals, ever so practical, exceptional, electromagnetical manIf science and art could agree to agree that they’re fighting the same battle, kind of like you and meFreedom from ignorance, striving for excellenceThere’s a first time for everything – wouldn’t you agree? Still I don’t know how you ended up with meBecause I am idealistic and slightly autistic, artistic and generally I like to risk itI’m hardy but tardy, I have a good heart, I erratically cry and compulsively lie and I can’t tell you why I do what I do, I can not find my shoeAnd I can’t tell you how I ended up with, probably can’t live without, you

Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It’s like, totally free. That’s not all though. You’ll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you’re looking for the archive, it’s here.

Hello dear friends. Today we’re beginning a trial of a new podcast format, so bear with us. Instead of releasing Geek Pop live sessions on our live sessions page as we have done for the last year, we’re going to be releasing them right here in the podcast feed. We’ll be sticking to the 5-song format for the regular monthly podcast, which means in total… (maths required)… you get 6 podcasts instead of 5!

In the coming months we hope to be bringing you interviews and all sorts of extra goodies in our live sessions podcasts, but while we get ourselves sorted out, here’s a quick one from Nerd Song. Oh, also, they made a little video of it just for us (but you probably already saw that). Thanks to SciCast for alerting us to their genius.

THE SONG: The Particle Zoo – Nerd Song

People used to think that An atom was fundamentally indivisible Now we really know that Matter is made of 24 different particlesWe’ve classified these fundamentals Into groups called quarks and leptons 12 in each makes 24

Now, quarks are really kinda strange Because of their gluon exchange They only come in 2s or 3s

Up quark, down quark, strange quark, charm quark, top quark, and a bottom too. These 6 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo

It’s time for us to move along From quarks over to the lepton The other fundamental group

Now, half the leptons carry charge The other half, by and large, Don’t really interact at all

Electron, muon, tau and corresponding neutrinos too These 6 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo

Some of you may have figured out That particles have been left out Exactly half, to be precise

Each particle has got a twin, An opposite-behaving thing That’s called an antiparticle

Every quark and lepton has an antiparticle too These 12 things are all a part of the standard particle zoo

The particles aren’t finished yet We’ve got some things called bosons That are carriers for every force

Electromagnetic and weak and strong Are carried by 4 gauge bosons But gravity is unresolved

Photons, gluons, w and z bosons for force mediation But we haven’t yet confirmed the particle for gravitation

People used to think that An atom was fundamentally indivisible Now we really know that Matter is made of 24 different particles

Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It’s like, totally free. That’s not all though. You’ll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you’re looking for the online archive, it’s here.

Time for some topical science-based music on the podcast. This is a special show to coincide with the news that neutrinos *might* be able to travel faster than light, and therefore some of Einstein’s theories *might* have been a bit wrong, and therefore time travel *might* be possible… Anyway, thanks to Andrew Pontzen, Geek Pop 2011 alumnus, for making that into a song and sending us a live recording of it. We were so pleased, we had to tell you all straight away.

Don’t forget that next month’s show is MONSTER themed. Send your song suggestions to crew@geekpop.co.uk

P.S. Sorry for any sound quirks – it was all a bit ad hoc and the usual equipment was on loan…

THE SONG: Spare A Thought – Andrew Pontzen

Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It’s like, totally free. That’s not all though. You’ll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you’re looking for the online archive, it’s here.